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Fire fighters go through the rubble inside what used to be Buy ‘n’ Build warehouse and shop after fire gutted the building in Bulawayo on Wednesday

Nyaradzo Bakari, Chronicle Reporter
BUY n BUILD Hardware Centre lost property worth more than $1 million in an inferno at its main branch in Bulawayo’s Belmont on Wednesday.

An electrical fault is suspected to have caused the fire, which started after midnight.

The fire was spotted by a security guard who was on duty.

The branch manager Ms Brilliant Ncube said the company lost property worth more than $1 million. She said they only recovered close to $8 000 which was in a safe in one of the offices.

“This is a huge loss for us because this is our main branch and it supplies all the other branches. Most of our hardware goods were stored here. All property was destroyed, we only managed to recover money, which was more than $8 000,” said Ms Ncube.

She said it took the fire brigade about four hours to put out the fire.

“We don’t know how the fire started. It took the fire brigade about four hours to completely put out the fire,” Ms Ncube said.

“The other thing that led to the delay in putting out the fire is the issue of vehicles. The first team to arrive had water which had low pressure such that putting out the fire was a slow process.”

When a Chronicle news crew arrived at the scene, a few fire officers were still attending the scene and workers were standing outside in shock.

Fire Brigade Senior Divisional officer Mr Edward Mpofu said investigations were underway to establish the cause of the fire.

He said they arrived at the scene five minutes after they were called.

“The fire had already spread and the roof had collapsed,” said Mr Mpofu.

“We haven’t estimated the damage as we are yet to consult insurers because our preliminary report hasn’t got the information. We have just put a percentage estimation of 60 percent damage, “Mr Mpofu said.

He urged security guards to report fires immediately before they spread. “We do not expect this at places that have security guards. There should be a difference between a place that is guarded and a place that is not. Security guards should not sleep at work and be quick to report fire. We expect them to save the companies’ property,” said Mr Mpofu.

“Let’s take for instance in this case; we took five minutes to attend the scene such that not too much damage should have been done in those five minutes but it seems the report was late. In situations like these you wonder if security was there or not.”—@NyarieBakie.